In a computer, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) executes a Power On Self-Test program, which is a program for initializing and diagnosing hardware in the computer, when the computer is powered on.
Instruction codes of the POST are stored in advance in Read-Only Memory (ROM), which is an auxiliary storage device of the computer. The execution of the instruction codes of the POST stored in the ROM is initiated when the computer is powered on. And the computer executes processes of the POST by executing the instruction codes (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
In another case, the instruction codes of the POST are transferred from the ROM to main memory of the computer in the POST program when the diagnosis of the main memory is performed by the POST, the diagnosis is terminated normally and the main memory becomes available. In this case, after the instruction codes are transferred to the main memory, the computer executes the processes of the POST by executing the instruction codes on the main memory. In addition, the POST suspends the processes of the computer when the diagnosis of the main memory performed by the POST is suspended (see Patent Document 3).
The following patent document describes conventional techniques related to the techniques described herein.